What if I were in 1861?
By JR Hoeft | Sunday, February 13th, 2011 | Catch-All
So, yeah, we have lots of problems in 2011: The debt, unemployment, war, the Middle East, taxes, etc.
All important. All will continue to be discussed with great concern and energy here on Bearing Drift.
But in addition to all the issues of state, we have begun a history blog. We’re jumping into the really way-back-machine and offering you a blog of events as they happened in 1861-65 from a Virginia Republican’s perspective.
Popular belief is that there are “Red” states and “Blue” states today – and that nobody in those states has a differing opinion from that political orthodoxy. That’s horse-pucky and we all know it. If it weren’t, there would be no “All Politics is Local” blog in Virginia. 
Same is true during the Civil War. Especially in Virginia.
While this Commonwealth hosted the capitol of the confederacy and had more battles in it than any other state, there were plenty here that sympathized with the cause of union and certainly plenty that were sympathetic to the Republican party.
Therefore, to honor the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War, this decidedly conservative and pro-Republican blog, will endeavor to stay true to history (and our own political beliefs), by throwing itself 150 years into the past in order to blog the Civil War as it happened in Virginia AS A REPUBLICAN.
We will stay true to our party’s ideology and perspective.
This is a conservative blog. We believe in liberty, personal responsibility, free enterprise, and constitutional principles. We would not be staying true to ourselves and our desire to maintain this way of life, if we did not sympathize with Union and condemn slavery.
Therefore, we’ve started the blog “Damn the Torpedoes“, which will chronicle the Civil War for the next four years.
The book we will rely on for most of our research is E.B. Long’s “Civil War: Day by Day“. We will also pay close attention to the Washington Post blog, “A House Divided” and New York Times blog, “Disunion“. Not to mention the fact that this is Virginia…we’ll be bringing you first-hand accounts from a battlefield near you!
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About the author
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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17 Responses to "What if I were in 1861?"
JR: Interesting project. Will you be trying to comment from the perspective of an 1861 Republican, rather than a 2011 Republican? I ask because there’s a difference in philosophy. Modern Republican are much more sympatheric, for example, to appeals to state’s rights.
Obviously, Steve, I will be carrying my own modern day biases into the project. However, my goal is to try to be as true to early Repubilcan philosophy as possible, while still understanding that I am a Virginian as well.
I think it would be far better to view it from the point of a Democrat from that time period.
Very interesting perspective. Virginia was, after all the only [future] Confederate State where Abraham Lincoln even appeared on the ballot in the election of 1860, so by that measure it was more “republican” than most.
The perspective of a Virginian is more complex than that of most other Southerners of the time because Virginia tried desperately to stay a part of the Union until Lincoln demanded that we commit our troops to repatriate our neighbors. For this reason many Virginians were opposed to secession prior to Lincoln’s call for troops. A Virginian in the Civil War was fighting for Virginia’s soveirgnty, as opposed to that of the Confederacy as a whole, which makes it much more noble.
But from a current day perspective, I would absolutely wish to travel down the same path if Barack Obama demanded we deploy our Nation Guard to invade North Carolina or any other state. That perspective is often lost in 30,000-foot histrical overveiws.
It will be nearly impossible to draw parallels between the GOP of ’61 and today. I think I know what you’re trying to do and you’d be better suited picking John Bell’s Constitutional Union party, where the real mountain republicans came from.
jkm -
Honestly, our main goal with this is just to have fun and recollect the history of our great state, while at the same time bringing a modern GOP interpretation to the events. Just read it for a little while and feel free to be critical of the posts – that’s also part of the fun.
Basically, we’re trying to put ourselves back into the action. How would we react? What would we blog about? Who would we be critical of? What would we hope the outcomes would be?
We’ll certainly look at what the Constitutional Party had to say back then as well.
Bottom-line: we have a great history in this state, and if we can point out some of the events, take some modern day photographs, travel to some of the sites, etc., then this will be more than worth it.
If you are looking for sources on what Virginians were thinking 150 years ago, check out the online exhibition from the Library of Virginia. Dozens of letters, newspaper clippings, and speech excerpts. Many people would be surprised by how reluctant Virginians were to leave the Union.
Boy oh boy. Here you go again.
Try using actual sources from the archives vice the NY Times. . .(conservatively speaking of course).
While the Republican party was pro-Union it wasn’t pro-self determination. That is what made Virginia seceed which differentiates us from the rest of the deep South. Even after Ft. Sumter, Virginians wanted to remain in the Union, but When Lincoln called for troops to invade sovereign states and use force to compel the other states back into a Union that they voted freely to leave, Virginia would have no part of it. They couldn’t remain in the Union if they didn’t provide Virginia troops to invade other states. That was teh dilemma the Republicans forced on them. So they had to secede. Very poor politics by Lincoln.
Concerning the vote it is True, blacks and women didn’t vote, but they didn’t vote in NY or anywhere up north either. Hard to use 21st Century perspectives on the 19th. The fact is the same legal voters that elected Lincoln, voted to secede.
The classic argument for secession exposing the northern hypocrites is the existence of WVA. If it was illegal for sovereign states to secede from the Union then why is it legal for a few counties that aren’t even sovereign to secede from a state against the will of the majority of the state’s citizens? Yet the north admitted our western counties as a new state in 1863, of course they were occupied by Federal troops at the time. Makes Egypt look good.
Another was the failure to try Davis after the war. After holding him in confinement planning to try him for treason in secession, they dropped the charges when their own lawyers admitted secession was legal.
While Virginia had many racists and slaveholders and a very ugly history after the war in the Democrat Jim Crow days, it also had many who weren’t in 1861. Most still fought for Virginia against Federal armed force against the will of the people. The vast majority of Virginia troops didn’t own slaves. Many Union officers did own slaves. Dictatorial force was the real issue here for most Virginians when they voted for seccession. Forcing people against their democratically expressed will.
That said, seems we have some real parallels with today’s situation.
While the Republican anti-slavery credentials are terrific, the democrats were the conservatives supporting state’s rights even if we disagreed with them.
Hello all: the VA State Archives list serve was gracious enough to allow me to post this thread. A lecture on this very topic will be held this Wednesday at the Library. I hope that the many people on that list will be coming over to join us in this discussion. I have given fair warning that it is mostly a modern-day Republican Party blog, but that it is open-minded for all ideas and interpretations. Please expect some new faces here. And let’s do our best to spell-check.
Dry Viking,
That’s quite a story. It just isn’t accurate.
While Lincoln did issue the call for troops, his reaction to Kentucky and Missouri made it quite clear he wasn’t prepared to force the issue if it meant driving the states away. In fact, when Virginia was restored in the summer of 1861, Lincoln never imposed his call on Virginia (or any other call).
By the way, part of a state can split off if the state OKs it – and Virginia’s restored government approved of the formation of West Virginia in 1862. It’s not the fault of Virginia Unionists that tens of thousands of Virginians refused to be part of the conversation because they were trying to pull the state out of the Union.
And don’t me started on the 1861 “referendum” Virginia held on secession that was conducted with Deep South Confederate troops already in Virginia for “protection.” Talk about “Forcing people against their democratically expressed will.”
good call Hb. Jim, Go check out State library stuff (and actual displays when you’re there in person.) They’ve really done a great job.
Dj:
I think you were inaccurate. The real government of Virginia didn’t try to pull the state out, they did pull out by the ordinance. They were forced back into the Union which took several years. They did not choose to be reunited, they fought to the death to prevent it. Restored? Not hardly.
Maryland told the story close by Virginia, where Federal troops forcibly prevented the people from voting on secession which kept them in the Union. Virginia got a chance to make their free choice.
The war is long over and certainly I applaud the end of slavery and am proud of our united country, but the facts are that Virginians were forced by arms to be in a Union they didn’t want to be in. They held the moral high ground.
Dry Viking,
You make excellent points, but I will take it one step further. I believe it is impossible to claim to be a conservative, constitutionalist, states’ rights advocate, or libertarian without being a supporter of the Confederacy — regardless of where you were born.
It was (and is) possible to be a staunch opponent of slavery while being a staunch believer that the federal government never did and never will have the constitutional authority to repatriate a soveirgn state by force. States joined the union as seperate and independent political entities and likewise should have the right to leave the union as seperate and independent political entities. While I completely respect differing opinions on the issue, especially those held by the adept authors of this blog, it is very difficult for me to understand how any conservative can arrive at the conclusion that invasion of soveirgn states is ever acceptable, regardless of how noble the intentions.
Even if I were to cede the argument on the validity of secession (and I don’t, BTW), by the very rules the convention laid down, the act was corrupted. The convention itself voted with Henry Wise pointing a gun at them; Harper’s Ferry was seized with no authority; and the referendum the convention called for was held under Confederate military “protection” while several Unionist counties were still never included in the final count.
As for the matter of state “sovereignty,” that ship sailed with the Continental Congress, which right after the Declaration began setting national policies, and then adopted the Articles of Confederation. From that point forward, the national government was supreme.
DJ,
I completely deisagree, but your thoughful and informed reply is exactly why I regard this as the best political blog in Virginia. Thank you.
DJ:
While there certainly were “corrupt” things going on at the time with Secessionists, the “restored” VA government was classic corruption. No way it represented the views of the people. In fact the Wheeling conventions didn’t even represent all the views of current WVA.
the facts are that the majority of citizens in VA wanted to secede, not because they liked slavery (although many did) but because they refused to attack other states whose citizens voted to leave the Union. That is called self-determination and the sons of Virginia fought to the death for it.
All of the shenanigans involving WVA were worse than corrupt, they were dictatorial even to demanding in 1866 that VA agree to it. As was the 1870 Supreme Court decision.
The Civil War was unnecessary and brought about by poor political choices by the Republicans. That said, I am glad that slavery was abolished as a result, but don’t gloss over the fact that people’s liberty (not to own slaves but to choose their own destiny) was denied by force. Slavery, you may recall was legal in the United States until after the war. It flourished under the Stars and Stripes more than under the Stars and Bars. Of course the Confederacy protected it in law and many firebrands were rabidly in favor of it. The majority of people were not. But they still wanted out of the Union.
One can also argue that had not the Radical Republicans rejected the President’s views on Reconstruction and instituted “Radical Reconstruction”, the South probably never would have begun Jim Crow.
The Republican party was not conservative during that period.
A picture and the story behind it says a thousand words:
http://www.snopes.com/photos/signs/grigsby.asp
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